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Chicago Nature Now! Alert
June 7, 2017

“Plan your Chicago nature trip with Chicago nature info and news
to help you discover the region’s finest natural wonders.”

 

Do you find this website useful? Do you benefit from our many hours of weekly scouting? Then please help keep it going by donating or purchasing my nationally-acclaimed book. It includes over two hundred breathtaking photographs and forty-six chapters of inspirational information that celebrate Chicago’s natural wonders and every preserve featured on this website.

 

Here’s what’s happening in Chicago nature:

The preserve of the week is Illinois Beach Nature Preserve with its grand show of sand coreopsis. This is also a fun week for kooky plants. The flower of the week is spiderwort, but you will only find them blooming in the morning. By the afternoon, the flowers will have melted into a purple liquid! Learn more here. The grass of the week is porcupine grass. Its long needle-like seed drills itself into the soil at a speed that you can actually watch. See my blog post and video. And then there’s foxglove beardtongue, that’s just beginning to bloom. In fall, it’s seed smells exactly, and I mean “exactly,” like vomit! See my video here. Now, read on to learn where to find these three miracles of Chicago nature.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

Illinois Beach Nature Preserve is putting on a spectacular show of golden sand coreopsis. Thanks to Seth Marcus for scouting this site and sending us pictures and video!

Miller Woods was putting on a fantastic show of wild lupine and hoary puccoon, but we haven’t been able to get back to see how much it has faded or to determine if other species are blooming. Please help us scout this preserve.

Somme Prairie Grove offers a sensation of blue flag iris in the wetland.

Belmont Prairie is featuring dense displays of spiderwort and porcupine grass.

Bluff Spring Fen is beginning a show of foxglove beardtongue and pale purple coneflower.

 

PLAN YOUR CHICAGO NATURE TRIP THIS WEEKEND

Illinois Beach Nature Preserve in Zion: The grand, golden show of sand coreopsis is taking place in the open sand prairie. Just take the trails that lead towards Lake Michigan. The parking lot is surrounded by a fairy-tale savanna where you’ll find displays of wild lupine, hoary puccoon, and downy phlox. And don’t forget to look for spiderwort. You can always find some around the parking lot. Because this preserve is so rich, you can easily spend most of your day exploring it.

Miller Woods (Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore) in Gary, Indiana: Over the past two weeks, the display of wild lupines and hoary puccoon was a must-see event. Now, we’re not so sure because we haven’t been able to scout it. So, consider becoming a volunteer scout or just send us some pictures from your visit. And, while you’re in Indiana, check out these preserves to fill out the rest of your day: Cowles Bog Trail and Tolleston Dunes.

Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove: Both porcupine grass and spiderwort can be found at this gem of a remnant prairie. Porcupine grass is easy to find. Spiderwort blooms in large numbers during the morning hours in the western half of the preserve. As the day warms, the flowers shrivel and turn to liquid.

Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin: Your walk begins in the intimate oak savanna under the warm embrace and protection of majestic oaks. Soon, the trails emerge into the open prairie where y0u’ll find foxglove beardtongue and pale purple coneflower beginning to bloom.

Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook: Take the trail north through the trees and then to the northeast to find a grand offering of blue flag iris in the wetland near Waukegan Road. Continue along the trails to see many other flowers in bloom, including cream wild indigo and American vetch.

Experience Spiderwort: Head out to just about any of our featured prairies and savannas to discover spiderwort. However, to see the flowers, you need to arrive by 10 o’clock in the morning. At the start of each day over the time span of about a month, the plant produces new purple flowers that turn to liquid by afternoon! To experience this purple liquid, squeeze the closed buds that resemble slightly opened pistachios. For the rest of the day, people will look at your fingers and think you were recently arrested. Read about spiderwort and learn where you can find it.

Experience Porcupine Grass at these preserves: Belmont Prairie, the sand prairie at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, Shoe Factory Road Prairie, Bluff Spring Fen, and Powderhorn Prairie.

 

COMING SOON: Exciting blooms of foxglove beardtongue (with seeds that smell like vomit) along with pale purple coneflowers!

 

PHOTO SECTION

Sand Coreopsis at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve

In a celebration of life, blooms of sand coreopsis spread with golden joy along the banks of the Dead River at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve in Zion, Illinois.*

Based on two visits last weekend, we predict blooms of sand coreopsis in the sand prairie at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve in Zion, Illinois.*

The turning earth is the dimmer switch, gradually recasting every dim dewdrop, petal, and blade of grass into a galaxy of blazing bulbs and lustrous lamps. On this morning in late May, blooms of golden coreopsis and New Jersey tea are set aglow alongside shimmering spider webs that cling to last year’s grasses.

The turning earth is the dimmer switch, gradually recasting every dim dewdrop, petal, and blade of grass into a galaxy of blazing bulbs and lustrous lamps. On this morning, blooms of golden coreopsis and New Jersey tea are set aglow alongside shimmering spider webs that cling to last year’s grasses.*

 

Miraculous Spiderwort with Flowers that Melt!

Ohio spiderwort in the morning light at Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove, Illinois.

Spiderwort in the morning light at Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove and at every savanna and prairie that we feature. A flower will open up in the morning and then melt in just a few hours. So, the morning is the time to see the flowers in bloom. Learn more here.

Miraculous Porcupine Grass and Spinning Seed!

Porcupine grass (Hesperostipa spartea, previously known as Stipa spartea, for anyone who cares) is a particularly fun and interesting plant because of its fascinating seed. The common name refers to its long needles, which apparently resemble the spines of a porcupine, though I think the needle-like fruit best resembles a six- to seven-inch spear. The seed head represents the blade, and the long shaft is known as the awn. As the javelin-shaped fruit falls from the plant, the heavy seed head leads the way and embeds its sharp tip into the soil. As the awn dries, it twirls counter-clockwise until the shaft becomes so tightly wound that the implanted seed head begins to drill into the ground. Humidity and moisture have the opposite effect on the awn, causing it to uncoil, allowing rain or heavy dew to straighten it out. As the awn unwinds, the seed is left in place. The drilling process resumes when the environment dries out, and the cycle repeats until the seed is deposited as far as three to four inches beneath the surface, where the awn decays and the grain germinates. Seeds of porcupine grass can’t help but drill, so much so that they’ve been known to cause fatal wounds in animals. Hence, trust me when I tell you that putting them in your pocket is a big mistake.

The seeds of porcupine grass are long sharp needles that fall off the plant and slowly drill themselves into the soil. See my video here.

 

Wild Lupine in Our Black Oak Savannas (Sand Savannas)

Biodiversity is about the many, not the few. Here, it’s springtime in the savanna, where blue lupines share precious space with hoary puccoon. But, as the season advances, both will fade, making room for an array of other species, in a cycle where each has its time in the sun and then returns to the soil.*

Biodiversity is about the many, not the few. Here, it’s springtime in the savanna, where blue lupines share precious space with hoary puccoon in the sand savanna at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve.*

 

Wild lupine and hoary puccoon blanket the savanna floor amongst the swale and dunes at Miller Woods.*

On May 22, this was the scene at Miller Woods, with wild lupine and hoary puccoon blanketing the swales and dunes. What is it like, this week? Please help others discover Chicago nature and become one of our scouts.

 

Wild Lupine of species Lupinus perennis.

Wild lupine of species Lupinus perennis.

Somme Prairie Grove

A phalanx of bue flag iris towers over the spring wetland at Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook, Illinois*

A phalanx of bue flag iris towers over the spring wetland at Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook, Illinois.*

 

The purple flowers of American vetch dot the savanna at Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook.

This is scene from Tuesday, May 30. The purple flowers of American vetch dot the open savanna at Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook.

 

Bluff Spring Fen

Soon after entering Bluff Spring Fen, you’ll find yourself in an intimate oak savanna, where majestic bur oaks with outstretched limbs protect you in their nurturing embrace.*

Soon after entering Bluff Spring Fen, you’ll find yourself in an intimate oak savanna, where majestic bur oaks with outstretched limbs protect you in their nurturing embrace.*

 

Pale Purple Coneflower & Foxglove Beardtongue Are Just Starting to Flower

Watch this video from about this time last year at Bluff Spring Fen:

 

* Photo is representational and was not recorded this year. Bloom times vary from year to year.

 

SCOUTING NEEDS for my  next report on Thursday, June 15 (in rough order of urgency):

If you’d like to help your neighbors discover national-park quality natural events around our homes, then become an official scout. Or, you can help by just sending us pictures and a text description from your visit. Another way is to post your pictures to Instagram using these essential hashtags: #ChicagoNatureNow and #NameOfPreserve.

Do you find this website useful? Do you benefit from our many hours of weekly scouting? Then please help keep it going by donating or purchasing my nationally-acclaimed book.

—Mike

 

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